A living hell: life with chronic pain

Dr. Stephen Wiseman is head of the St. Paul’s Pain Centre. Arlen Redekop/pngArlen Redekop
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VANCOUVER, BC.: OCTOBER 2, 2012 - Shelly Hurley describes her injury due to a car accident in Vancouver, B.C., October 2, 2012. IMAGE FOR USE ONLY WITH ST. PAUL'S HOSPITAL HEARTBEAT PROJECT IN THE PROVINCE. NO OTHER USE PERMITTED.
(Arlen Redekop photo/ PNG)
(For story by [Cheryl Chan])Arlen Redekop
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Shelly Hurley of Chilliwack is worked over by physiotherapist Marlene Noble at St. Paul’s.Arlen Redekop
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It was only a rear-ender.

The damage was only $3,500. The force wasn’t even enough to trigger the airbag.

But the accident on Easter weekend in 2002 proved catastrophic for Shelly Hurley — propelling her into an pain-wracked existence for almost 10 years.

“I didn’t want to live,” says Hurley, 42, a Chilliwack mother of three. “When you’re living with that pain and it keeps getting worse. I can’t imagine going on living like that.”

Initially, doctors told her the pain in her neck and left shoulder was from soft-tissue damage. It would get better, they reassured her. Two months later, a painful throbbing began in her left arm and gradually increased in intensity.

Hurley saw a chiropractor and physiotherapist. She was on pain meds and got botox injections on her neck. She even had part of a rib removed to ease the pressure. Nothing worked; the pain persisted.

Hurley lost her job as a care aide with the elderly, a job she loved. Simple motions like pulling up socks and pants and pushing a wheelchair were impossible.

But Hurley wanted to keep working. She started taking courses to be a nursing unit clerk. But typing triggered more pain, and the drugs she was “sucking back” left her brain in a fog. Hurley was unable to complete her practicum. Her instructor told her that if she had to take that many pills to function, it wasn’t going to work.

The pain also affected her family life. Hurley wasn’t able to be a mom to her kids. She was irritable and depressed; her marriage also suffered.

Hurley was only in her mid-30s then, but she felt like an old person, glued to her couch seeking comfort from a heating pad, hoping tomorrow would be a better day. It was no life, she says.

“I hated my life. I hated getting up in the morning. It was just a repeat of the same day, over and over again.”

Hurley’s story is not rare; it’s just invisible.

According to Pain BC, chronic pain is an “invisible disease” affecting one in five Canadians.

Traditionally, pain was considered a symptom of a disease or a condition. But in the past decade, research has shown chronic pain in a disease on its own — the result of a “rewiring” of the nervous system after trauma, causing it to keep on firing off pain messages to the brain, even when there is no threat to the body.

Chronic pain is poorly understood and carries a stigma, says Dr. Stephen Wiseman, head of St. Paul’s Hospital’s Pain Centre. Pain patients are often labeled as whiners and complainers who just need to buckle down and suck it up.

“But it is so the opposite,” he says. “The vast majority of the patients I’ve seen are incredibly courageous and hanging in there and coping with it.

The pain affects work, school, relationships, explains Wiseman — even “how to concentrate and solve regular problems, or whether they’re well enough to get out of bed, knowing if they stay in bed they get a bit of relief, but knowing they are getting more deconditioned and digging a deeper hole. It’s not a good place to be.”

Chronic pain is also underserved. The St. Paul’s program treats patients from all over B.C. and has a wait list close to three years and 1,000 patients.

“That’s simply not tolerable or appropriate,” says Wiseman.

Hurley waited two years to get into the St. Paul’s program.

Doctors tried various other treatments, including injections to numb the arm, and surgery to cut the nerves in her arm. But they brought only temporary relief.

Last Noveber, she got a spinal cord stimulator, or stim, implanted in her back. The device sends electrical signals to the spinal cord and powered by a battery pack near her abdomen.

Hurley was nervous, but at that point, she says, what do you have to lose?

The operation worked. The pain eased. It’s still there, masked by the tingling given off by the stim. But today, the pain measures about a two or three on a 1 to 10 scale. Hurley sys she’ll take it, after the last decade living mostly on a 10.

For the first time in a long time, Hurley is able to get away from the couch, attend her kids’ sports games, cook dinner, rebuild relationships with her family and friends, and plan future. One of her greatest joys has been being able to carry her granddaughter Hallie, now 14 months.

“It’s been amazing,” says Hurley of the change in her life, thanks to the stim. “Now I’m excited to get up and see what I can accomplish in the day.”

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